I'm so excited to be sharing this delightful book about the trials and rewards of a budding friendship. Pig and Pug by Lynne Berry and illustrated by Gemma Correll is a wonderfully quirky children’s book featuring a pug-in-a-purse and a pig-in-a-pocket. Edited by Knopf/Random House editor, Julia Maguire while she was at Simon and Schuster, who worked with awesome art director Lucy Cummins to bring this book to life, this book is wonderful on many levels.

As soon as they meet, Pig and Pug are off to the races, doing what many children are delightfully skilled at—pushing each other’s buttons. Despite their similar stature, Pig and Pug don’t see eye to eye and both Lynne Berry and Gemma Correll do a fantastic job of showing this in words and illustrations. Lynne Berry has a grand time exploiting the alliteration of the letter P, especially with names like Pig and Pug. The short sentences and teasing dialogue make the story very appealing to all ages. Gemma’s simple limited color palette and incredibly expressive characters (keep an eye on their facial expressions!) indulging in recognizably child-like behavior truly brings Pig and Pug to rough and tumble life in a way that’ll keep you reading it over and over again.

Note how the very simple clothing and limited color palette puts the focus on the character's expressions and reactions to each other. Also note the fun repetition.

Also note how incredibly simple and fun these illustrations are and how effectively Gemma uses relatable color choices for emotional moments - red to show anger (with a scribble anger cloud to emphasize) and black to show tunneling vision and focus. I also love the cropped close up when Pig sees black.

Pig and Pug's behavior mirrors each other to show the idea that people can be similar to each other and still have conflict.

And here they are from the beginning - Pug in a purse and Pig in a pocket. I'm not going to give the ending away but it has a wonderful twist that mirrors this image (and real life) in a really fun way. So if you like to laugh and play with language, take a peek at this sweetie!

Thank you for introducing me to this work. I love the graphic simplicity of the illustrations and the playfulness of the language as well as the character's expressions. I'll be looking for the book and for your next post, as I always learn something new!

While the phenomenon is yet to sweep across Australia, in the United States professional dog walking is a fast growing industry with organisations such as the National Association of Professional Dog Walkers (NAPDW) being established to support and educate dog walkers and pet owners. Members (the dog walkers) agree to a Code of Ethics, provide insurance and preferably have studied one of the many courses now being offered in order to become a professional dog walker.

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We are so excited to be mixing things up at the Children's Book Academy, beginning with some delicious additions to the Blogfish. Meet our awesome new bloggers!!

Here's our lineup:1st Mondays begin with Clear Fork/Spork editor/art director, former agent and former kidlit professor Mira Reisberg PhDwho is also the Director of the Children's Book Academy.

2nd Mondays will feature super smart Melissa Stoller whose career is taking off with new books coming soon.

3rd Mondays will feature Bryan Patrick Avery, published writer, man of mystery, and professional magician among other things.